This is what I’m taking about: The best Pugging People in the game!

So while I appreciate I could be bringing you more entertaining posts, hell, maybe for once an informative post, I’m going to call out some more WoW heroes!

Frank – Aman’Thul

Frank is in the list for one very important reason (two, but I’ll get to that) – he dropped group.

Yeah, we were stuck on boss number one and he took a bullet for the sake of the group because he believed (and yeah ok, maybe he was right), that his DPS was too low. He gave it a good hard crack though.

Prosmona – Aman’Thul

Did DPS without pulling agrro (unlike a certain Gnome Mage we all know… some of us love, the rest Rez him)

Logged out in RP gear!

Holly Gnome poo… AWESOME!

So happy he got the last drop.. Grats!

Trena – Ner’zhul / Bloodlust

Negatives:

She’s a Lock

Positives:

She’s a hot Lock!

Soul stones, health stones, provided without asking

Great DPS

Did I mention she’s a HOT Lock (this new WoW Armory is the new porn.. PORN FOR GEEKS!)

Aside: Have you ever noticed how hot girl locks look… they give their scantily clad Succubus a run for their money!

Joshii – Frostmourne / Bloodlust

He’s the Tank that is DPS, or

The DPS that is Tank

He was our Tank. He admitted that he is DPS tired of waiting for a group, so he’s THE Tank – Got it!

He’s a damn good tank, the only thing that’s lacking is the gear to give the healer some breathing space… and I don’t mean to say he’s unhealable.

Who got aggro – He got aggro!

He’s the man!

Squidly – Aman’Thul

Pro Healer (not my words… the next guy’s…)

Blogger

Calling out the WoW Heroes!

Honest enough to say I can’t do it…

Brave enough to give it a go

Ottomanz – Barthilas / Bloodlust

He stayed!

Ohh yeah much more to come, but I’ll leave it at that for the moment.

What is it that brings me to shower these people with accolades?

1st up, I want to acknowledge Frank, Prosmona and Trena.

This story isn’t so much about them, but without them it wouldn’t be a story. As in all the great sagas of old there were the heroes and the rest.

These folks may be the rest, but they are no less heroes!

Really the story is about the other two, because it flies in the face of (nearly) everything we have read in the blogsphere and forums since 3.3.

The Scene (briefly I promise)

Pit of Saron

We wipe on Forgemaster Garfrost twice.

Frank suggests he isn’t helping the party, even though no one has said a bad word, he departs so we can find another.

Enter stage left: Ottomanz

Forgemaster Garfrost – one shot

Ick & Krick – one shot

OK, I will expand a little. No, not on the fight per se, but the behavior of the group. This is one of those encounters where you can identify the bad-standing, situationally unaware, I’m going to DPS, your job is to heal team mates.

They are the ones face down in the green!

NOT ONE ISSUE!

Not here, not anywhere in the instance!

You my dear party members are already heroes!

During the trash on the hill Ottomanz calls me out… as a Pro Healer?

As far as he is concerned, Joshii and the rest of us should have been feeding the crows, but we weren’t so I am a Pro Healer… this is backed up by Joshii.. so OK, I am a pro healer.. got that folks?

The falling ice gauntlet is a mess 1st time, mainly because I was afk for the 1st 10 seconds… and couldn’t catch up.. nearly.. close enough to aggro, too far away to land a heal.

Scourgelord Tyrannus – Wipe

I point out I have never successfully healed this, but have dps’d it. Can Ottomanz heal?

Joshii asks if Ottomanz can tank instead?

Ottomanz can’t do either (purely based on his knowledge of his own gear capability for this encounter), so we give it another go.

Scourgelord Tyrannus – Wipe

/bye says Ottomanz

But wait, there’s more (no steak knives folks!)

OK, so up until now we have a relatively normal story, this is where the heroes proved themselves…

Ottomanz has already said his goodbyes, but he hasn’t left the party yet.

Before he goes, he offers some friendly advice about Joshii’s gear and particularly health – yes I mean friendly,helpful advice.

Of course you know what Joshii does… he accepts it gratefully.

We all thank Ottomanz for his help and patiently wait for him to drop group…

But he doesn’t… he then says…

I remember what it was like to be under-geared. I’ll stick with you through this.

DID YOU READ THAT!

Here is a guy that obviously out gears us, that doesn’t particularly want to have to bang his head and his repair bill against the wall, BUT he will give it a go because he remembers what it was like.

The encounter explained… patiently

Ottomanz then sets about patiently explaining the encounter, makes sure we are all comfortable with what is about to happen, and we go again.

We ran in..

We engaged…

We got lucky, I got the Overlords Brand more often than not..

We survived.. we ALL survived.

It was one of those moments.

You know how at the end of a random, people hit DE, then teleport out…

We didn’t… we just kinda milled about.. satisfied.. maybe even a little proud.

Wrapping it up in a pretty little bow

So to wrap it up.

1st I’d like to thank you all for making my life as easy as could be byt playing intelligently.

2nd I’d like to say to Joshii… Tanking may not be your preferred spec, but I’m telling you now… if you tank that well in mediocre gear, you will be an awesome tank a couple of hundred badges down the road!

3rd I’d like to thank Ottomanz for being a patient, caring supportive member of the party, that gave us a second chance and took the time to educate us and didn’t leave us wondering if we would ever thank that bastard dragon rider down.

4th I’d like to thank myself for being a Pro Healer… but that’s a bit conceited… and not entirely deserved.. I just got lucky.

So if any of you readers are Alliance side on Barthilas, Frostmourne or Ner’zhul, please make sure these guys know they have been called out.. I’ll look after the Aman’Thul side of things… I’ll even shout Tree Hugger Dave a beer when he arrives at my place next Friday night.

The Best Pugging People in the game

Here is a challenge for ALL of you.

For the next week, well from this point forward, but at least for the next week, I want you to do an attitudinal shift.

Bloggers:

No failpug stories… none! If you have one, draft it and put it aside, see if you still want to post it in a week.

Actively remember and write about the Best Pugging People in the game

When (not if) you participate in the “Everyone” activities below, make sure you publicize it via your blog.

Everyone:

You are welcome to write your Best Pugging People in the comments here, but I want to shift the attitude in the whole game. While I am happy that I get between 600-1,000 readers a day, that’s not quite 11-12 million players, so

Go to your realm forums and start a thread called “The Best Pugging People in the Game”.

Call some people out for being great, write a story if you are so inclined

Go to their realm forum and do the same thing

Remember that the Trolls will love this, there is a good chance that your 1st post will become infested… that’s OK. Most people aren’t Trolls, and we will rise up and put them back in their little boxes.

Speaking of Heroes and DeathKnights…

TyphoonTyphoidAndrew‘s interview on Twisted Nether Podcast is available for download and a listen right now. I happen to like Andrew and he’s an Aussie so he’s already off to a good start. However this interview stands on it’s own. I think it’s one of the best I have listened to (which I did live while trying to capture Best Pugging People stories), now you get the chance to download you own copy!

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

PS: I mentioned this on Twitter… there is a reason my feedreader never gets below 1,000+ unread items… it’s because of people like Dechion. I read the post, then mark it as unread. Of Dechion’s posts that I read yesterday 8/9 remain (marked) unread… the 9th some bullshit about gearing a DK Tank… Actually it wasn’t bullshit, but it’s not my cup of mana.

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Weird, I also ran into some decent people in PoS. Some terrible ones too. My DK was learning how to tank those vrykul packs and they didn’t insult me when I screwed up and we wiped. We tried again and they all die. And I got another tanking sword which is way too fast.

In my post that I gave kudos to my group/pug, I didn’t mention any names (mainly because I forgot to bring screen caps to work) but I ended up ranting too much about other stuff (not involving the good pug)

Yay! What a great post :) I must admit, reading all the failpug posts on the wow blog circut has been a little bit of a downer since the LFG system was introduced. I’m pretty much a solo player due to time zone constraints (EU servers living in Canada) and was really excited about the new system as I finally can get groups. All the horror stories have made me hold back a little…. which I know is silly, but there ya go. Looking forward to hearing more winpug stories!

I’m a newbie player and a newbie bear tank, and I’ve had two great runs of Ahn’kahet with people who didn’t care that I had to take it slow, and they helped me out a lot.

In one, a great pally healer helped with stage directions “pull to back here!” and a great rogue CC’d stuff because I couldn’t handle big groups of casters.

In the other, the two hunters were just having all kinds of fun and even though the other dps bailed and then the healer bailed, we got replacements and charged on through, chatting and joking all the way.

Neither run was perfect, there were deaths and close calls, but both of them made me feel a bit more confident as a tank.

Leveling my little healer druid and picked up a PUG for Shattered Halls last night. I arrive to find that I have zero memory of this place. We start trekking along and reach a particularly hard pull. Wipe once – dps leaves. Wait for replacement. Wipe again – other dps leaves. Replacement. Wipe two more times – final dps leaves. Most people would give up at this point, but the tank and I are determined. Neither of us have knowledge of the place, but we are going to succeed! I do a little research, we come up with a plan, replace the missing dps and we make it past the pull! We cheer and dance with excitement. Next pull – wipe… Did we quit? No way! The tank and I are going to see it to the end. I rally the troops to stick with it and put in their all, and we complete the instance (with a few more wipes). Afterwards instead of the “thanx” and log quick group-drop, we all stayed, complimented each other and basked in the glory of learning a new strategy and making it work.

It brought back my faith in PUGs and reminded me of what I love about the game. The silent, highly-efficient, 80 heroics hide the fun and discovery of the game. Going through the motions like a well-oiled machine, but with no excitement, hardship or pride was destroying my gameplay. I have now learned what was missing, and I crave another adventure.

I’ve got to say, since the new tool was implemented, that my pug happiness level has been a firm 95/5…95 to the good. It’s been a pleasant surprise, and frankly the only problems in that 5% were 99% DK tank wanna-be’s, neither geared nor familiar with how to tank, nor listening to anyone else in the group. The other 1% of that 5% was a loot-happy pally who let Needing things he couldn’t even use; our group shamed him into finally giving the healer the healer trinket at the end of the run. (Yes, Bubbalicious, that’s you).

Anyway, I’m, Horde, just thought I’d drop in and add my comments regarding the pug tool; I love it, and glad to hear it’s working as well for Alliance, too.